New Sarasota Clinic Offers Spectrum of Services to Meet Community Needs

Staff at the opening of the new Jean and Alfred Goldstein Health Center in Newtown.

Photo: Sarasota Memorial Hospital.

Originally published on July 10, 2017 2:21 pm

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In a Sarasota neighborhood with no doctor’s offices and little access to health care, a new clinic in Newtown is bringing medical care and so much more.

Since the turn of the last century and the days of segregation, the Newtown neighborhood north of Downtown Sarasota has been predominantly African-American, and as development pushed capital into other neighborhoods, the neighborhood went mostly ignored. That changed last week when a long-held dream became reality for one physician with a vision: Dr. Karen Hamad, the associate director of the Florida State University College of Medicine’s Internal Residency Program at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. At the ribbon opening ceremony for the clinic last week, Dr. Hamad talked about the three years it took to put the pieces together for the Jean and Alfred Goldstein Health Center, which will be more than a clinic.

Beyond the clinic's medical offerings, it will also have a small food pantry, access to legal aid for low-income Newtown residents who might otherwise feel they don’t have a voice, a pharmacy, and more.

Dr. Wilhelmine Wiese-Rometsch, director of the University Residency program, joins Gulf Coast Live to explain how the program broadened its offerings to meet the needs of the community, and the medical concerns she sees being met by the more than a dozen doctors who staff the clinic.

Also joining the show is Dr. Christopher Jenkins, one of the resident physicians who sees patients in Newtown.

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